The disclosure relates generally to turbomachinery, such as steam turbines, and more particularly, to inlet assemblies for turbomachinery.
A turbomachine can receive a supply of fluid from a supply conduit via an inlet assembly. The inlet assembly can guide the flow from the supply conduit to a rotor of the turbomachine, and can reshape and redirect the flow. An inlet transition section of the inlet assembly can guide the flow to an inlet bowl of the assembly. The inlet bowl can redirect the flow, such as by turning it through an angle to be received by the rotor. Typically, the inlet bowl will be connected to the inlet transition section along an edge of the inlet bowl, which results in a polygonal or substantially polygonal connection. The inlet transition section can reshape and direct the flow from the circular cross section pipe to the polygonal or substantially polygonal opening to minimize aerodynamic and/or other losses through the transition. However, typically the inlet assembly is specific to a given supply conduit, or at least to a specific turbomachine model, resulting in a large number of inlet assembly designs.